Monday's Baseball Action

The Yankees dropped their fourth straight, 4-2 in Detroit, as CC Sabathia couldn't stop New York from losing.

Sabathia pitched his first complete-game for the Yankees (albeit an eight-inning CG because the home-town Tigers didn't need to bat in the ninth), allowing six hits and striking out seven. He also gave up a home run, a two-run shot to Magglio Ordonez.

According to the Associated Press, Sabathia said his outing was “definitely” his best of the year and manager Joe Girardi agreed.

Interesting.. that even when their so-called ace pitches his best, they still lose. Hmm.

Wonder what the Daily News and the Post think about that?

Sabathia's ERA is now 4.73.

I guess at least that's way better than Chien-Ming Wang's.


The Florida Marlins lost again, this time 7-1 to the Mets in New York. The Marlins, who started 11-1 this season, have now lost seven straight.

They blew a 3-0 lead against Philadelphia on Friday by allowing seven ninth-inning runs to lose 7-3, and lost another ninth-inning lead on Saturday to the Phillies before losing 6-4 in extras.

On Sunday, it was a 13-2 defeat to the Phillies, with nine runs coming in the seventh and eighth innings.

Then in the loss to the Mets, Florida gave up six big runs in the very first inning, and that was pretty much the ballgame.

The one consolation? I suppose giving up just one run from the second inning onwards must be a positive sign.


Speaking of the Phillies, they rallied past the Washington Nationals 13-11 with six runs in the bottom of the eighth, capped off by Raul Ibanez's grand slam. Ryan Howard had hit a grand slam earlier in the contest.

It's only April, but it must be a good sign for the defending champs that they could come back in the late innings to win ballgames.

When Washington took a 6-2 lead in the fifth, the Phils immediately tied it in the bottom of the inning on Howard's grand slam. The Nats regained the lead 7-6, only to see the Phillies tie it in the bottom half of their inning.

Then when Nick Johnson and Adam Dunn slammed two-run bombs in the eighth, the Nats looked to be in control, up 11-7. But the Phils just refused to die.

Speaking of Dunn, wonder if he regrets signing with the Nationals, who at 4-14, are the worst team in the majors.


Now on to the best team in the AL. No, it's no longer the Toronto Blue Jays, who lost 7-1 in Kansas City.

It's now the Boston Red Sox, who have won 11 straight to move into a first-place tie in the East. Boston (13-6) is percentage points ahead of Toronto (14-7) atop the division.

And what can you say about Jason Bay? Yet another ninth-inning blast, this time a three-run homer, as the Red Sox won 3-1 in Cleveland. (Bay had homered off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning on Friday night to tie the Yankees before the Red Sox evenutally won it.)

The contest featured quite a pitching duel, with the BoSox's Tim Wakefield and the Tribe's Cliff Lee both pitching scoreless ball. Wakefield gave up only one hit in seven innings, while Lee gave up five hits in eight innings to go with five strikeouts.

The Indians could at least take solace in the fact it was Lee's best start of the season.